FEMA Announces Independent Study Course "An Introduction to Hazardous

[GeorgeWendtCFI]

Don't complain that your tax dollars get you nothing from DHS.

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Release Date: May 18, 2005

FEMA Announces Independent Study Course "An Introduction to Hazardous
Materials"

Emmitsburg, MD.- Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response, and head of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, announced today the U.S. Fire
Administration's (USFA) Emergency Management Institute is providing through
its Independent Study series a general introduction to hazardous materials
that can serve as a foundation for more specific studies in the future.
Independent Study (IS) 5, an Introduction to Hazardous Materials, is now
available. IS 5 is an "Awareness" level course.

"Concerned community members who want to learn more about such issues can
help protect their own health and that of their community - as well as
ensuring that local, state, tribal and federal emergency preparedness
efforts are in place for dealing with hazardous materials incidents -whether
they be accidental or the work of terrorists," said Brown.

At the conclusion of the course, the participant should be able to:

1. Explain the roles of federal, state, local and tribal governments in
reducing hazardous materials risks through health and environmental
regulations;
2. Discuss the two major hazardous materials identification systems used
within the United States;
3. Identify possible terrorists' targets in which industrial chemicals could
be used as weapons.
4. Identify locations where hazardous materials are commonly found and how
to determine their potential health effects;
5. Describe basic terms relating to exposure to hazardous materials;
6. Read and interpret a material safety data sheet (MSDS);
7. Explain how hazardous materials enter the body and contaminate the
environment;
8. Describe what communities can do to increase their emergency preparedness
to respond to hazardous materials incidents;
9. Identify steps individuals and communities can take to protect themselves
during a hazardous materials release.

To access Introduction to Hazardous Materials go to:
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/crslist.asp

FEMA prepares the nation for all hazards and manages federal response and
recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates
mitigation activities, trains first responders, works with state and local
emergency managers, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program and the
U.S. Fire Administration. FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security on March 1, 2003.

[cellblock]

Cool. I knew they were redesigning it. Guess they had to rename it too. I took it back when it was "Hazardous Materials- A Citizens Orientation". It is one of 25 FEMA IS courses I have completed. I encourage everyone to take the courses offered by FEMA.
They have a couple that I havn't taken that I'm interested in so I don't think I'm finished yet. Here are the ones I've finished already.

IS-1 Emergency Program Manager
IS-2 Emergency Preparedness, USA
IS-3 Radiological Emergency Management
IS-5 Hazardous Materials- A Citizens Orientation
IS-7 A Citizens Guide to Disaster Assistance
IS-10 Animals in Disaster, Awareness and Preparedness
IS-11 Animals in Disaster, Community Planning
IS-111 Livestock in Disaster
IS-120 An Orientation to Community Disaster Exercises
IS-139 Exercise Design
IS-195 Basic Incident Command System
IS-230 Principles of Emergency Management
IS-235 Emergency Planning
IS-240 Leadership and Influence
IS-241 Decision Making and Problem Solving
IS-242 Effective Communication
IS-244 Developing and Managing Volunteers
IS-271 Anticipating Hazardous Weather & Community Risk
IS-275 Role of the Emergency Operations Center
IS-288 Role of Voluntary Agencies in Emergency Management
IS-324 Community Hurricane Preparedness
IS-393 Introduction to Mitigation
IS-394 Mitigation for Homeowners
IS-630 Introduction to the Public Assistance Process
IS-631 Public Assistance Operations 1

[cellblock]

You can add 5 more to the list above-
IS 22 - Are You Ready? An In-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness
IS-292 Disaster Basics
IS-317 Introduction to Community Emergency Response Teams
IS-346 An Orientation to Hazardous Materials for Medical Personnel
and
IS-700 National Incident Management System (NIMS)

That's 30 down.